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rhianydd's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
harleyrae's review against another edition
4.0
I went into this book very hesitant. I had tried to read this book many many years ago and was not at all impressed. When I saw that the audio book version of this was on overdrive through my library I decided to go ahead and give this another try. I am so happy I did! It has been awhile since I was engaged and excited to listen to book. I loved the story, the narrator, and just everything about this book. I have a couple issues in the past with Alice in Wonderland retellings, but this blew all of that out of the water.
I interested in reading the second book sometime soon. I was quite pleased with how this book ended, but I'm interested in seeing how everything has change since the events of this book.
I interested in reading the second book sometime soon. I was quite pleased with how this book ended, but I'm interested in seeing how everything has change since the events of this book.
ols_dove's review
5.0
I found this book in a library as a child,
It felt to me like magic gone wild,
Reread it in a week now I'm older not new,
Still five feathers for the caterpillar that's blue.
It felt to me like magic gone wild,
Reread it in a week now I'm older not new,
Still five feathers for the caterpillar that's blue.
andiemags53's review
4.0
I really really really liked this book! I am not a big fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So I was a bit skeptic of this book at first. But it definitely did not disappoint! I love spins on stories, especially when I did not like the original. There are 3 books in this series, so I will soon see how the next 2 are.
snakeboba's review against another edition
5.0
Before I start let me say Alice in Wonderland takes third place in my list of adored tales from childhood (behind The Little Mermaid and Rapunzel). I’ve basically loved so far every adaptation and twist to the story (however I am still on the fence about the live action movie if any wonder). So, when I was a couple of pages in The Looking Glass Wars I heard from those how much I would love it and indeed I was amazed without a doubt.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor is such a brilliant idea. The story of Alice as what we know is not quite as it seems. Alice in Wonderland is a tale inspired by Alyss’ stories she told to the reverend who worked at the same college her adoptive father was dean of, which I cannot remember the same of, and used Lewis Carroll as a pseudonym. This makes Alyss angry as she believed someone would finally see her stories as truth and not fiction. He turns her stories of her home in such a way she finally gives up on trying to make anyone believe and she even pushes it deep within believing it is something she made all up.
In a way you feel her heartbreak within yourself when you know the truth. She is not Alice, a poor child who was found on the streets to those who assume she witness the death of her parents and put in an orphanage to later be adopted by the Liddells. Though she should be a proper lady, not a proper lady of London. She should be the Queen of Wonderland, the most powerful one of all, and use her White Imagination to overthrow Redd. Without Hatter, or anyone else, she becomes a normal lady who pretends all her stories with her dealing with her childhood and blends greatly into the world of which she lives in no matter if she is Princess Alyss for that is a long ago fairytale.
How did she end up in London? How did this all happen? Well, it is all simple and distressing. Alyass was taken from the Heart Palace to the Pool of Tears with Hatter Madigan as her guide and guard on her seventh birthday by the word of her mother, Queen Genevieve, when Redd’s army attacks the palace. Redd and her army battles Genevieve and White Chess pieces. The Cat is sent after Alyss to ensure there will be not Heart Family left to take Redd’s place. This is where Genevieve is slayed and the Queendom is taken over by Alyss’ aunt.
The Cat with several lives chases after the Alyss and Hatter, only losing them with only getting a bit of Alyss’ birthday dress in his claws. He claims to Redd he murdered the two to bits and with them both in the Pool of Tears Redd could not see either in her Inner Eye (I’m pretty sure it is not called that, but what came to me), and ruled Princess Alyss gone. The two actually safe, but separated in the pool. This is how Alyss ends up alone in London with no one listening to her stories and Hatter in Paris seen as a dangerous person as her searches with regret of losing the young princess. It leaves her separated from her real life for nearly eighteen years.
In the years of Alyss’ absence in Wonderland, Redd has ruled out White Imagination and governed Black shall be the truth power. Those who refuse to commit to her ways have suffered to the point death is their only freedom. Her rage for banishment is put on to those in the Queendom and is absolutely ruthless. The only problem she has at all is the Alyssians, more like an irritating bug to her, who are the rebels are trying to reclaim the Queendom in the name of their beloved, fallen princess.
The Alyssians are a group made up of those who are left of the chess pieces, Wonderlanders, and overall anyone who is willing to fight against the power of Redd. They claim in the name of Alyss to defeat and overthrow the Queen. The few are key characters without giving too much is General Doppelgänger (he can split into Doppel and Gänger) and Dodge, which is the romantic interest in the story. There are a couple more characters known to the reader, but I dislike to give away too much if I do not have to even if those may appear obvious to what they are.
It is found out The Cat who had claimed to murder Aylss and the Hatter had not, though no one learns of his reasoning of lying because of wishing to not get wet. This upsets Redd in a way she takes a few of the Cat’s lives as punishment and if Alyss is not murdered soon she’ll take more of the beast. She is able to return to Wonderland, but is hardly able to believe in the world and of herself. She questions if she can be the savior everyone wants her to be and has to overcome it all.
Does Alyss overcome her maze? Does she defeat Redd?
That is all for you to discover.
The Looking Glass Wars is such a brilliant and bizarre taken on Alice in Wonderland. It is well written and the plot is wonderful. Each character no matter how big or small has a place without feeling like you question why they exist. It is depressing to see so many low rating when I found the book so amazing. I suggest to those who like Alice in Wonderland and enjoy the adaptation of it to give the book a try.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor is such a brilliant idea. The story of Alice as what we know is not quite as it seems. Alice in Wonderland is a tale inspired by Alyss’ stories she told to the reverend who worked at the same college her adoptive father was dean of, which I cannot remember the same of, and used Lewis Carroll as a pseudonym. This makes Alyss angry as she believed someone would finally see her stories as truth and not fiction. He turns her stories of her home in such a way she finally gives up on trying to make anyone believe and she even pushes it deep within believing it is something she made all up.
In a way you feel her heartbreak within yourself when you know the truth. She is not Alice, a poor child who was found on the streets to those who assume she witness the death of her parents and put in an orphanage to later be adopted by the Liddells. Though she should be a proper lady, not a proper lady of London. She should be the Queen of Wonderland, the most powerful one of all, and use her White Imagination to overthrow Redd. Without Hatter, or anyone else, she becomes a normal lady who pretends all her stories with her dealing with her childhood and blends greatly into the world of which she lives in no matter if she is Princess Alyss for that is a long ago fairytale.
How did she end up in London? How did this all happen? Well, it is all simple and distressing. Alyass was taken from the Heart Palace to the Pool of Tears with Hatter Madigan as her guide and guard on her seventh birthday by the word of her mother, Queen Genevieve, when Redd’s army attacks the palace. Redd and her army battles Genevieve and White Chess pieces. The Cat is sent after Alyss to ensure there will be not Heart Family left to take Redd’s place. This is where Genevieve is slayed and the Queendom is taken over by Alyss’ aunt.
The Cat with several lives chases after the Alyss and Hatter, only losing them with only getting a bit of Alyss’ birthday dress in his claws. He claims to Redd he murdered the two to bits and with them both in the Pool of Tears Redd could not see either in her Inner Eye (I’m pretty sure it is not called that, but what came to me), and ruled Princess Alyss gone. The two actually safe, but separated in the pool. This is how Alyss ends up alone in London with no one listening to her stories and Hatter in Paris seen as a dangerous person as her searches with regret of losing the young princess. It leaves her separated from her real life for nearly eighteen years.
In the years of Alyss’ absence in Wonderland, Redd has ruled out White Imagination and governed Black shall be the truth power. Those who refuse to commit to her ways have suffered to the point death is their only freedom. Her rage for banishment is put on to those in the Queendom and is absolutely ruthless. The only problem she has at all is the Alyssians, more like an irritating bug to her, who are the rebels are trying to reclaim the Queendom in the name of their beloved, fallen princess.
The Alyssians are a group made up of those who are left of the chess pieces, Wonderlanders, and overall anyone who is willing to fight against the power of Redd. They claim in the name of Alyss to defeat and overthrow the Queen. The few are key characters without giving too much is General Doppelgänger (he can split into Doppel and Gänger) and Dodge, which is the romantic interest in the story. There are a couple more characters known to the reader, but I dislike to give away too much if I do not have to even if those may appear obvious to what they are.
It is found out The Cat who had claimed to murder Aylss and the Hatter had not, though no one learns of his reasoning of lying because of wishing to not get wet. This upsets Redd in a way she takes a few of the Cat’s lives as punishment and if Alyss is not murdered soon she’ll take more of the beast. She is able to return to Wonderland, but is hardly able to believe in the world and of herself. She questions if she can be the savior everyone wants her to be and has to overcome it all.
Does Alyss overcome her maze? Does she defeat Redd?
That is all for you to discover.
The Looking Glass Wars is such a brilliant and bizarre taken on Alice in Wonderland. It is well written and the plot is wonderful. Each character no matter how big or small has a place without feeling like you question why they exist. It is depressing to see so many low rating when I found the book so amazing. I suggest to those who like Alice in Wonderland and enjoy the adaptation of it to give the book a try.
rosatulipan's review against another edition
So, since I'm a big fan of the Wonderland world, you can trust me on this.
I REALLY enjoyed this book.
manic_bibliophile's review
1.0
Were it not for the fact that I don't like to DNF books, I would have stopped at the 200 page mark and gladly thrown this book in the recycle bin. I almost did exactly this more than once while reading.
As a rule, I tend to be incredibly lenient when it comes to children's and middle grade books, and I keep in the back of my mind to read them as a parent or teacher would; does this book benefit a child's reading experience, will it enable them to think critically or creatively about what they're reading? Even if this is not the case, I rarely find a kid's book that wouldn't have at the bare minimum an entertaining premise. This isn't on the behalf of the kids, because kids aren't dumb when it comes to stories they like, but I do this for the author's benefit. They wrote these books with kids as their audience, so as long as the story is good, it's my opinion to never rip into their book unless I personally feel it absolutely deserves it.
This is my take. This is not against anyone who loves this book - please continue to love it as fiercely as possible.
That being said, this book gave me an extreme sense of whiplash with the inconsistencies and lack of information that is absolutely required for worldbuilding at every reading level. From the first descriptions, I couldn't tell if Wonderland was supposed to be a steampunk world, a high fantasy world, or an amalgamation of different time periods with a little steampunk scattered throughout, and spent a good amount of time scratching my head trying to figure it out. But whatever, it'll get more apparent, right? (It didn't.)
On a similar note, the worldbuilding itself was so so so awful. Like, there was a moment when I was twenty pages from the end where I knocked my book down and saw the map at the beginning of the book that I'd completely forgotten about, and I thought to myself, Huh. Wonderland is supposed to be a lot bigger than it's been described.
To give a broad sense of my reading experience for this and cut my review down, I felt frustrated and like I was being given the roughest of drafts for an idea that could have absolutely worked and been a great read. The story was bland and uninteresting and cushioned in almost 200 pages of filler that was a struggle to get through. The plot, when we got to the actual plot, was rushed and terribly executed. The characters were the weakest point for me, like either stick with the Wonderland inspiration or don't, but the attempt at having a middle ground between the two with characters like The Mad Hatter being the polar opposite of his namesake juxtaposed with the Queen of Hearts being a twisted yet apparent version of hers was a huge let down. All in all this book just came across as a lazy alternative fanfiction rather than a fully formed and fleshed out inspired retelling.
The one positive that I can say about this book from an adult perspective is the thing that I've seen mentioned a few times as a negative, and that is the scene with the Cheshire Cat character - aptly named The Cat. Amazing. - wherein he delivers lines straight out of Taxi Driver to a cluster of trees and shrubs that are mocking him. "Are you talking to me? I don't see anyone else around so you must be talking to me."
Shut the front door.
As a rule, I tend to be incredibly lenient when it comes to children's and middle grade books, and I keep in the back of my mind to read them as a parent or teacher would; does this book benefit a child's reading experience, will it enable them to think critically or creatively about what they're reading? Even if this is not the case, I rarely find a kid's book that wouldn't have at the bare minimum an entertaining premise. This isn't on the behalf of the kids, because kids aren't dumb when it comes to stories they like, but I do this for the author's benefit. They wrote these books with kids as their audience, so as long as the story is good, it's my opinion to never rip into their book unless I personally feel it absolutely deserves it.
This is my take. This is not against anyone who loves this book - please continue to love it as fiercely as possible.
That being said, this book gave me an extreme sense of whiplash with the inconsistencies and lack of information that is absolutely required for worldbuilding at every reading level. From the first descriptions, I couldn't tell if Wonderland was supposed to be a steampunk world, a high fantasy world, or an amalgamation of different time periods with a little steampunk scattered throughout, and spent a good amount of time scratching my head trying to figure it out. But whatever, it'll get more apparent, right? (It didn't.)
On a similar note, the worldbuilding itself was so so so awful. Like, there was a moment when I was twenty pages from the end where I knocked my book down and saw the map at the beginning of the book that I'd completely forgotten about, and I thought to myself, Huh. Wonderland is supposed to be a lot bigger than it's been described.
To give a broad sense of my reading experience for this and cut my review down, I felt frustrated and like I was being given the roughest of drafts for an idea that could have absolutely worked and been a great read. The story was bland and uninteresting and cushioned in almost 200 pages of filler that was a struggle to get through. The plot, when we got to the actual plot, was rushed and terribly executed. The characters were the weakest point for me, like either stick with the Wonderland inspiration or don't, but the attempt at having a middle ground between the two with characters like The Mad Hatter being the polar opposite of his namesake juxtaposed with the Queen of Hearts being a twisted yet apparent version of hers was a huge let down. All in all this book just came across as a lazy alternative fanfiction rather than a fully formed and fleshed out inspired retelling.
The one positive that I can say about this book from an adult perspective is the thing that I've seen mentioned a few times as a negative, and that is the scene with the Cheshire Cat character - aptly named The Cat. Amazing. - wherein he delivers lines straight out of Taxi Driver to a cluster of trees and shrubs that are mocking him. "Are you talking to me? I don't see anyone else around so you must be talking to me."
Shut the front door.
rebesaurusrex's review
3.0
I enjoyed the first book in this series; though based on the ending, not quite sure why it's a series rather than a standalone book. The pacing was a little uneven but I remained generally engaged. Jury is still out on if I will complete the series.
teaturtlesandbooks's review
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0